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“State of Play” seems like Hollywood’s answer to the current newspaper crisis, but it actually started as a six-part BBC series from 2003 featuring a then little-known James McAvoy. Adapted for the big screen by Tony Gilroy, who seems to specialize in behind the scenes looks of institutions and big business, and directed by Kevin McDonald (“The Last King of Scotland”, also with McAvoy), the film had a troubled history. Ironic for a film about writing, it was the writer’s strike 2007-2008 that hampered the film’s shoot by making rewrites of the script impossible. This led to Brad Pitt dropping out and Russell Crowe coming in. Not necessarily bad for the acting department, as Crowe gives a great performance, but the writing department couldn’t patch up a few plot holes here and there. Though they don’t take away from the film too much and the 120+ minutes seem to fly by in this smart thriller that looks and feels like it should have been made in the more edgy 1970s instead of today. Republican Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) sees his bright future collapse when his research assistant is found dead and his affair with her revealed, while shortly before that, a junky is shot dead in Washington DC. These two apparently unrelated deaths force his former college roommate and old-school journalist Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) to work together with his 21st century counterpart, the newspaper’s blogger Della Frye (Rachel McAdams), to probe into these murders. Only what starts as an apparently minor scandal involving possible suicide and extra-marital affairs, turns into a case of corruption and murder that reaches to the highest level of Washington politics and big business.
Exchange Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams for Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, add a big corporation vying for government contracts in Iraq, and another big corporation that just took over the film’s newspaper, and you got “All the President’s Men” for the 21st century. In that sense, the film’s timing couldn’t have been better considering the real-world context of failing newspapers in the US, Blackwater in Iraq, and cross-media ownership of news outlets by fewer and fewer big companies. At the same time, the film might not go far enough when it comes to new media and is a bit behind current events like CNN covering the protests in Iran utilizing photos from blogs and videos posted on YouTube due to the Iranian government banning foreign journalists from reporting. Which, not taking sides in “new media” vs. “old media” or getting into how reliable Twitter is as a news source, makes this last hurrah for investigative journalism seem somewhat anachronistic. No question, investigative journalism is needed, but does it have to be in a print medium necessarily, as “State of Play” seems to suggest, while blogging is still child’s play and generalized as unreliable and superficial. Russell Crowe delivers as always, Ben Affleck gives another strong supporting performance after "Hollywoodland", and Rachel McAdams holds her own as the novice blogger and aspiring journalist. But it's Hellen Mirren, as the newspaper's editor (a man in the original series) who steals the show with her tough as nails yet lovable editor torn between big business demands and running a real newspaper. In a way, the film's conflicts when it comes to changing journalism today center around her, though it's not tough to guess where the final article eventually appears. Not surprising, though, in a film that gives special thanks to The Washington Post, home of Woodward and Bernstein, who even have a small cameo in the film as a photograph behind McAffrey’s desk. |
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